I'm a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor who's written breaking news and analysis for Reuters, The Atlantic, The Verge, and many other outlets as a fulltime freelance journalist. I became infatuated with prisons -- and the lack of substantive coverage these institutions tend to receive -- while working for one of the only (and, alas, now defunct) journalism-based Innocence Projects in the country, the Innocence Institute of Point Park University. There, I worked alongside veteran crime reporter Bill Moushey to investigate claims of wrongful conviction in Pennsylvania's prisons.

As many as 13 Texas prisoners died from heatstroke since 2007 according to a lawsuit that questions how administrators decided to allocate the much-valued commodity of conditioned air in oppressive Texas heat. Courthouse News Service has the story but buries the lede, which is this:

[Texas Department of Criminal Justice] even air-conditions the armory at the prison because it considers possible damage to its weaponry more important than possible, or even likely, death to the inmate population.

A little overdramatic perhaps. And of course we’re still in the allegation-making phase of this lawsuit. But still, wow. More from the report:

In their complaint, the three families say they “bring this lawsuit to prevent more men from dying of heat stroke in the brutally hot TDCJ Gurney Unit and seek redress for their relatives who perished at the Gurney Unit.”

…

In the complaint about the three dead men, the families say: “Like most other TDCJ units, the Gurney Unit inmate living areas are not air conditioned, and apparent indoor temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees. These temperatures last late into the night, providing no relief to prisoners. Even early in the morning, indoor apparent temperatures are sweltering.

“As each of the defendants named individually have long known and discussed internally at high-level TDCJ and UTMB leadership meetings well before 2011, temperatures this elevated cause the human body to shut down. As the body can no longer cool itself, body systems fail. If there is no immediate intervention, extreme temperatures will cause death.”

Defendant Robert Eason was the TDCJ’s regional director for its Gurney Unit when the inmates died, according to the complaint.

“Even though ten men died of heat stroke in 2011 – and eight of them died in his ‘region’ – Eason did not consider these deaths a serious problem. In fact, in the face of these deaths, he believed TDCJ was doing a ‘wonderful job’ and ‘[didn't] have a problem with heat-related deaths,’” the complaint states.

“Eason’s direct supervisors, [Brad] Livingston, [TDCJ Correctional Institutions Division Director Rick] Thaler and [Thaler's Deputy Director William] Stephens, were similarly unconcerned. The deaths of prisoners from heat stroke at the Gurney Unit and system wide were regularly discussed at meetings Thaler and Stephens held with their deputies, including Eason.

“Even though the existing policies were obviously inadequate, Thaler, Stephens, and Eason continued to follow the same deadly course of conduct. Air conditioning the Gurney Unit or other prisons was never even discussed. Nor was moving individuals with heat-sensitive medical conditions or disabilities to air-conditioned prisons discussed or implemented.”

The TDCJ officials were also keenly aware that certain prisoners should not be in the heat, the families say.

“It was well known to TDCJ and UTMB leadership that people with certain medical conditions, like diabetes or hypertension, or who take certain medications, like psychotropics or diuretics, are much more vulnerable to extreme temperatures. Their medical conditions prevent their bodies from regulating their temperature, putting them at much greater risk of death,” the families say in the complaint.

Each of the four inmates had been prescribed pyschotropics or diuretics before their deaths, according to a chart in the complaints.

Makes you happy to have air conditioning, eh?

Another more important question: Does it concern you that prison administrators were apparently more willing to spend taxpayer dollars on air conditioning an armory filled with weapons than a prison filled with human beings?

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